Journal of Political Economy Vol. 25 No. 1 1917
The Relation of Engineering to Economics
Abstract
What is the value to an engineering student, a future engineer, of economics effectively taught? It will tend to broaden his views by showing engineering in its proper relation to other activities. It will help to develop the very valuable habit of thinking in terms of groups rather than of individuals, especially in matters of service. It will help the engineering student to see the real ultimate purposes of engineering. It will, for the best of engineering students, help to bring in the future years of engineering experience that wider vision which is the inspiration, the spiritual motive power of the great engineer. Economics and engineering are closely related. Economics has been defined as the social science of earning a living. With the same appropriateness engineering may be defined to be physical science applied to helping groups of men to make a better living. That is but paraphrasing Tredgold's classic definition, " Engineering is the art of directing the great sources of power in nature for the use and convenience of man." Two lines of thought so closely related as are economics and engineering necessarily react upon, and supplement, each other. Each line of thought aids in securing a complete understanding of the other. Four illustrations of the close relations between economics and engineering follow. The four illustrations deal with the effect of the development of the steam engine on economic conditions: the economic waste produced by poorly designed terminals and by the unnecessary use of terminals in large centers of population, the economic waste produced by sending freight over that one of two railways between two cities on which the actual cost of hauling the freight is the higher, and the advisability of neglecting some waterways. It is immaterial for the present purpose whether you agree with my conclusions in these four illustrations. The important point is that in each of these illustrations, as in many other matters, true
- DOI
- 10.1086/252928
- Volume
- 25
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 59-63
- Language
- en
- Sources
- semanticscholar openalex crossref